Can't Let You Go
by iridebrooms
Summary: Set right after the book;even though Mel and Wanda have their own separate bodies, things turn out to be a lot more complicated than initially thought- an alternative ending in which Jared realizes he's oddly attracted to Wanda, Ian still cares about Mel and Wanda isn't fully over Jared yet. A story in which the complicated love triangle continues for a little while longer. REVIEW!
1. Life In The Caves

_Hello, dear readers!_

_I'm just taking this opportunity to reinforce how important The Host has been to me throughout my childhood; it's been my favorite book for as long as I can remember and I've literally been dreaming of writing a fanfic on it for ever. I love the ending of it, but I find it a little simple. _

_So, this is __**MY**__ alternative ending, an ending with its ups and downs, with looooads of feelings and a lot of drama. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! xxx_

The subsequent weeks felt unreal.

It was even hotter now, which none of us would have ever thought possible. The heat was everywhere; it deprived us of our energy and made it hard to do anything, but everyone was ecstatic nonetheless. The caves had never been so full of joy; the people were laughing and hugging each other, singing their favorite songs and playing their favorite games that they hadn't thought of in years. There was something in the air that every single one of us had forgotten the feeling of- _jauntiness._

I couldn't remember the last time I had felt this way. It was almost too good to be true.

Mel was back.

She was here, and she was so beautiful, and she was radiating so much passion and love and _life_ that I would find myself wondering about how I had survived the last year without her.

And Wanda was back as well, as good and compassionate as only a soul could be, and her and Ian were inseparable. Everything was perfect, like it should be. Everything was finally... right. At its place.

Melanie came crouching down beside me and stroked my hair. Her gaze rested on my face and she smiled; I closed my eyes and sighed.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked softly.

"About how much I've missed that smile," I answered and kissed her.

She laughed and pulled away to look at me. Her eyes were of an intense green, with sprinkles of light gold. No shimmering silver. Just a clear, humane green. That was something I still hadn't gotten used to- it was a color constellation I had thought I would never see again.

"You saw Wanda smile all the time," she said with a touch of sadness in her voice.

"Yes," I agreed. "Wanda. Not Melanie."

That made her laugh. She liked it when I differentiated them like that. She said that not everyone was able to do this - many people still treated her like the soul that had once been implanted in her head. They didn't fully understand that she was someone else; it was Wanda they associated with this body.

"But it was my body," she corrected me. "It still looked the same. Even if it wasn't me."

I pulled her close to me and kissed her. Our tongues entwined and our heated bodies fused to one being. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders to bring us even closer together. "It's still not the same thing," I murmured in between breaths. "It's _your_ smile, Mel." I kissed her neck, her shoulders, her collarbones. My lips swirled around her face until they reached hers once more. Our kisses were different than they used to be these days; they were more demanding. None of us knew how much time we had left, and both of us were aware of that. Painfully aware.

"Jared! Mel!" Jamie came running towards us, his arms waving in the air. When he reached us and saw how close we were, he understood. "Oh," he said embarrassed."I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb-" "What's up, Jamie?" Mel laughed, got to her feet and hugged him heartily. I knew she cherished every moment with him, especially now that he didn't live with us anymore. He was still with her all the time, but it was less than she was used to. He had grown up a lot in the past year.

"Wanda and Ian just came back," he said, excited. "They brought us three new hostages!_"_ When he looked up and saw Mel's face, he added hastily: "I mean _souls._ Doc has already transplanted one of them, he's really fast these days. And guess what! It worked perfectly. No hassle whatsoever. She's already awake!" Melanie and I looked at each other, surprised. It was rare that the people woke up straight away. It usually took a few days until they found their way back- if they found their way back at all. Some of them woke up with no memory of their previous life, some of them didn't wake up at all. "Let's go, then" she said, and rested her hand on Jamie's shoulder. "What's her name? Does she remember?"

"She remembers _everything,"_ her brother said, exhilarate. "Her name is Diana."

They turned around and walked towards the tunnel that led to Doc. I watched them for a while, until Mel turned around and called: "Are you coming, Jared?"

I thought about this for a moment, but shook my head. I wanted them to spend time alone. Besides, I hadn't seen Ian and Wanda for multiple days and I wanted to know about their trip. I was sure Ian would be in the kitchen, and even though Wanda would prefer to help Doc, she would probably be with Ian. They needed to tell me about all of their encounters during their trip; it was important to stay informed.

We had to be even more careful these days. The seekers had become aware of the sudden rise in the number of missing souls. We usually took one or two with us whenever we went for a road trip. We could take a lot more, seeing as it was so easy to gain their trust, but we didn't. It would be too obvious, too risky. But our little community was growing very fast; we were now fifty-six people, meaning we had gathered a total of nineteen humans in the few weeks since we had met Burns Living Flowers and his family, whom we were still in contact with. Once a month, - the day the moon was at its fullest - we would meet a few miles away from here at an oddly shaped rock and inform each other about anything remotely useful, which turned out to be very helpful. They opposed Jeb's invitations to move in with us; they preferred the nomad lifestyle, it made them feel safer not to have one specific home. They kept all of their belongings in their cars and were constantly on the move. We didn't mind this too much; it was somewhat safer for us any ways. Having a large group would be both challenging and extremely dangerous.

However, our attitude towards the souls had definitely changed. Even though some of us feared them more than others, the overall community had become a little bit more relaxed. Yes, this was obviously still a war and we were still heavily outnumbered, but for the first time in years we had _hope. _We knew how to change them back into humans, given that we had the devices. We had accepted that they were good hearted and nice, and therefore easy to outwit. The only thing we feared were seekers, which were unfortunately the group of souls we were encountering increasingly recently; they were the only ones that would fight us if necessary. And they were searching the area. They were getting suspicious. I reached the Kitchen and saw Ian and Wanda sitting closely entwined at the table.They were laughing and eating and seemed relieved. When they saw me, they waved.

I sat down opposite to them.

"Hi, Jared" Wanda said a little shyly.

"Hi, Wanda" I said politely.

Ian grunted and pushed his plate away from him. "Howell," he greeted me.

"O'Shea," I replied.

We shared a long look without words. It was strange between Ian and myself. A lot had happened in the past and we were both sensible enough not to bring it up, but we were both aware of it. He still hadn't forgiven me that I had allowed Wanda's almost-death.

Reasonable.

Wanda, as empathic as she was, noticed the tension and decided to change topic: "The Trip was fun," she said lamely, and looked at Ian for support. He sighed and looked at her, smiling. Typical Ian. Always trying to comfort his girl.

"Was it easy?" I asked, my eyes flickering from him to her.

"Yes," she said. "No," said Ian at the same time. She glanced at him, slightly annoyed. Hastily, she continued: "Some seekers, nothing too serious. No need to worry about-"

"How many?" I demanded.

"Twenty- five, more or less." Ian answered after a short exchange of glances with Wanda.

"_Twenty- five?" _

When Wanda saw my aghast face, she looked at Ianreproachfully."It's really not that big of a deal, they barely looked at us-" she grew silent.

"What exactly were they doing?"

Ian shrugged. "Searching the desert. They're not very close yet, but I'm getting slightly worried." He looked up at me and pointed at his plate. An offer. I looked at the strange looking vegetables and shook my head curtly.

"We should stop taking hostages for a while." I realized_._ Ian and Wanda nodded. "It's getting too obvious. There's more than twenty people missing, and most of them are from the same area. I'm sure they've concluded..."

"They have," Wanda said, nodding. "They're not stupid. I overheard a conversation at the grocery store." I looked at her expectantly and waited for a response. When her eyes met mine, she looked down and her cheeks turned rosy. A very common trait for this new body she had inherited. "One of them said that he was friends with a seeker and that he had told him there were humans near. He said that it is believed that we take souls and..." she shuddered, "kill them."

I was silent for a moment. "Seems like a human thing to do," I said a little sarcastically. "Are you sure they don't think we take the souls out of the bodies?"

Wanda thought about this for a minute. Her forehead creased which made her look a little less child-like. "I think that they're afraid you're trying. They obviously don't know you're succeeding." She smiled a little ruefully.

I nodded absentmindedly. They obviously didn't know. How could they? The soul transplant was their biggest secret, they had no reason to believe any soul would have told a _human._ No ordinary soul, any ways. But Wanda was special...

It was good to talk to her, in a way. We didn't really talk much these days. Just in that moment Kyle entered the kitchen and his gaze searched the room until he saw his brother. "Ian!" he called. "Doc needs you." Wanda jumped on her feet and hurried towards Kyle, worried. "What happened? Is everything okay with them? Did something go wrong?"

Ian was next to her, hugging her around the waist.

"He also said to tell you not to worry," Kyle grinned. Wanda relaxed. "We just need him to come with us to do a few tests with Sunny and the others." When Wanda opened her mouth to protest, he added: "I was forbidden to take you along. You need to rest. Don't worry, everything's fine." Ian looked at her apologetically. "I'll be back soon," he promised, gave me a warning look and disappeared with Kyle. Wanda and I were left alone in the empty kitchen. She turned around and met my glance. Quickly, she looked away. Why did she do that?

"I... should go. I'm tired. I'll go lie down." With these words, she smiled at me and turned around to leave. I watched her as she disappeared around the dark corner. After a moment of hesitation, I hurried after her. "Wait," I said when I was right behind her. I could tell how her posture stiffened, even in the dark. She stopped, faced me and said as polite as she could: "Good night, Jared." It sounded contrived, even for her. With these words she kept walking.

"I'll bring you."

It sounded almost like a plea; how pathetic. I was just trying to be nice.

"You don't have to," she said patiently.

"I want to."

She sighed and turned right."Jared..."

We had almost reached her and Ian's room. She halted and turned around once more to face me. The last daylight was stretching its fingers out through the little cracks and holes Jeb had forced into the cave wall. "You don't have to do this, you know." "But I wanted to." What was the big deal? After all, we were friends in a certain way. Right?

She looked down at her feet for a moment before she looked back up. She was a lot smaller than I was. "I don't just mean _this," s_he gestured at the entrance of her room. "I mean you don't have to treat me like I'm the best person in the world. You don't have to be so... nice to me."

I stared at her, blankly. "Isn't that what you want?" I asked, not exactly sure of what she meant. "Isn't that what _all_ of you souls want? Kindness?"

"Yes," she whispered. "But it feels so unnatural."

I laughed. "Why, because I'm such a horrible person and I can't possibly be nice without faking it?"

She smiled a little. "You know what I mean."

"As a matter of fact I don't," I mumbled.

She looked up at the frail streams of light that were slicing through the dark hallway. They were slowly disappearing. Then she closed her eyes, and her juvenile face became very still. It took a moment until she spoke. "You don't owe me anything."

It was still then.

"_It don't owe you anything?" _I struggled for words, incapable of finding a legitimate response. "Wanda, I owe you everything! I owe you my life! Because of you I have Mel back!" I thrust my arms into the air, desperate. "I won't ever be able to give you what you gave me, don't you understand? Let me... let me please just be nice to you, okay? Please, Wanda. Let me treat you like this. It helps me to... feel better about myself."

Finally, she nodded. But she didn't seem happy. Why not?

She was still looking somewhere else. I felt the urge to touch her, to care for this child, and touched her cheek. She flinched.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly.

Her lips were quivering, and she pressed them together as if to suppress a sob.

"What's wrong, Wanda?" The image of this helpless girl made me feel uneasy, and I shifted uncomfortably. I was looking at her now, trying to figure her out. Her round, child-like face was filled with...what was it? Sorrow? I couldn't tell. I couldn't distinguish it in this foreign face. When she didn't reply, I said: "I still haven't gotten used to this face, you know. It's weird to see you... like this. You look like a different person but you're not. It's very... confusing."

"Very confusing," she agreed silently. Her voice was trembling.

"I just want you to know that I'm truly grateful for everything you have done for us, Wanda. Especially for me, Mel and Jamie." I saw her lips curl into a feeble smile when I mentioned his name.

"I know you are, Jared. Thank you," she said sincerely.

She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and looked almost _inpatient._ As if my presence seemed annoying, almost aggravating. When did she start to dislike me so much?

"I'll go now," I mumbled.

"Good night, Jared."

And with these words, she was gone.

_This is it, the first chapter! It was a one-shot and I'm honestly quite pleased with it. Does anyone of you know where this is headed?_

_Please comment,add to favorites, follow and __**REVIEW**__ and I'll make sure to have a new chapter up really soon! I have some juicy stuff planned, guys!_

_xxx_

_**P.S.: **__Make sure to check out my other stories; I also have another fanfic on The Host which I'm very proud of as well! It's a KYLE-JARED fanfic (not what you think.) Check it out!_

_Muchos lovos, Gloria_


	2. Stay Away

Diana brought excitement with her. The people liked her; her modesty and genuine kindness gained her a lot of sympathy throughout the first weeks- she was nice and caring but tough and rational when it came to important decisions. She was nice, funny and smart, and on top of that her soul Heads To The Sky had been a highly regarded healer. Her memory was in perfect condition; she was able to retrieve all of the soul's memories to hand them over to Doc, who found them very helpful. She had contained a lot more of her soul's knowledge than Candy had done, which helped all of us to understand the progress of healing a lot more. This made Candy feel useless and she began complaining about the newcomer; she was whining about the attention we gave Diana. There came a point in which my fingers itched to shoot this annoying human we had saved. She was just as bad as the seeker that had taken her over, and she made all of our lives a lot harder. Doc was beaming the whole time when he was around Diana, he couldn't get enough of her stories and information. She shared a room with Louise and Skyler, also two necomers that had only been with us for several weeks. Not only was she a very crucial source of information, but she was also a hard worker. I saw her on the fields almost every single day; and when I didn't, she was usually in the Kitchen cooking with some of the other women.

Diana very rarely spoke about herself,- the girl before all of this had happened, the human- but she loved talking about Heads To The Sky; she said that she found herself striding through those memories a lot more than through her own ones, she desired the soul's interesting profession and many lives on different planets as opposed to the boring office job she herself had attended. She hadn't shared a body with Heads To The Sky like Mel and Wanda had done, - she had been completely extinguished throughout the procedure- nor did she particularly like her like Mel liked Wanda, she just thought of her as a more interesting being than her mediocre self.

Everything was the best it had ever been, and better. There seemed to be no end to the positivity that surrounded us every single day. The new members of our community were becoming routined and more proficient at the tasks they were given. Sunny and Kyle were only a few days away from Sunny's first tour- Jeb had decided that she had been there for long enough to be a trustworthy member. „Look at her," he had said when she had found out about this new challenge and had gripped onto Kyle, „she likes Kyle too much to run away. God knows she's a fool for likin' him, but she does." And that was proof enough.

Wanda had tried to convince Kyle and Jeb that she should be the one going with Sunny; after all, two souls would be the safest way and especially in these times it was necessary to be as careful as we possibly could.

I had agreed.

But Ian hadn't. Obviously.

„You need to rest, Wanda" he had protested, turning to Jeb. „Jeb, she's on tour every single time! It's unfair to send her each and every single time."

„It's the safest way possible, O'Shea" I had echoed her. „Think about the whole group."

„Stay out of this, Howell" he had growled, turning back to Jeb.

And that had been the whole discussion.

I spent most of my time with Mel and Jamie. It felt like something nobody in this world could take them away from me now. Our bond was stronger than ever, stronger than the war outside that impaired it. Surprisingly, Mel and Wanda didn't spend much time with each other. Wanda was usually with Ian, and whenever she wasn't, she was with us and Jamie. We would all sit together at a big table in the kitchen and talk and laugh and eat. They weren't ever alone together.

When I asked Mel about it, she said that that wasn't necessary. They knew each other too well. There was nothing on this earth they didn't know about each other, and there wasn't much to say that the other person wouldn't have guessed beforehand. A single glance was enough to read the other persons mind; and even though they were now in seperate bodies, their hearts still somehow belonged together. They were bound in a way that none of us would ever fully understand.

The days were getting shorter now. The heat was slowly dispersing and it finally felt like we had air to breathe. I had worked in the fields all day and Mel had washed and cleansed laundry all day. She yawned and lay down beside me, and rapidly closed her eyes. I lay next to her and laid my arm under her head to act as a pillow. She clung to my chest.

I traced my fingertips down her neck and made little circular motions and patterns that she followed with her eyes. It made her smile.

„There it is again," I remarked. „That smile."

„I just...never thought that I would ever be able to feel this way again."

„Me neither."

Her fingers clasped mine and she looked at our entwined hands, unbelievingly. „I can touch you again," she whispered. „I still haven't gotten used to that."

My fingers slid to the side of her face and cupped her jaw. „I'm sorry I hit you," I said silently. I didn't know why this was suddenly relevant, but it was. A wave of sadness overcame me, and I turned away.

„That's okay."

„No, it isn't."

„I know," she replied laughing. But then she suddenly stopped and grew silent for a moment. Thoughtful, she added: „And it wasn't really me, was it? You didn't hit me. You hit her, which doesn't make it okay, but at least you didn't hit me."

„But it was your face," I said abashed.

„I was honestly quite mad at you. But I don't think anything in the world could make me stop feeling this way. So happy."

This ceased me. This time it was her than wrapped her arms around mine. She held me as tight as she could and I sensed her familiar scent that was hugging me, luring me in.

The kitchen was full of people. We sat at our tables and devoured the numerous foods that we had on our plates. Jamie and Wanda talked about something seemingly interesting, Jamie's eyes glowed of excitement, and Melanie was having a serious talk with Jeb a few meters away. They lowered their voices and discussed something.

Ian looked up, interested. His eyes inspected Mel and Jeb as he tried to decode what they were talking about. It bothered me, the way he looked at her. I knew it shouldn't, but it did. Whenever I would catch them talking or looking at each other, - regardless of whether it meant something or not- it bothered me. I knew he shared memories with this body that belonged to me, desired it in a way only I did. And even though the girl he loved was sitting right next to him, talking to the little boy with amusement, he shared something with Mel. And Mel shared something with him, in a way. She had been there when Ian and Wanda had started falling for each other. She had been there when they had kissed. That thought made me sick. Ian O'shea, kissing Mel, even if it wasn't really her, touching the body that I knew so well and her feeling every single one of his caresses-

Ian turned away and looked at me. When he saw my gaze something flickered in his eyes; little bursts of flames flared up until they disappeared again, and all that was left was severity. After a moment of silence, he said: „I'll go do the night duty." He got up and looked at me prompting.„Howell?"

I hadn't been outside for a while, so I didn't mind. I got up and said: „Fine."

It was pitchblack outside.

I didn't like the darkness. The deprivation of seeing made me alert, made me feel like an easy prey. Ian crouched next to the familiar hedges we usually hid behind. They rustled when we bent down to seize a look throught the dark leaves. It gave us a perfect view on the street a few miles away from us, which was illuminated by a few lanterns.

There was nothing out of the usual going on that night. There were about five seekers that were searching the proximity, but they didn't seem very eager on finding anything; they walked around aimlessly and stayed close to their cars, none of them were committed enough to enter the depths of the desert. They shined their torches onto the rocks but didn't see anything unusual. Obviously. Our home was very hard to decipher. When we realized they weren't heading in our direction, we relaxed a little.

Ian handed me the binoculars and I looked at the roaming souls.

After a long moment of silence,- how long exactly was unclear to me, it was so hard to keep track of time these days- Ian said: „I heard you walked Wanda to our room."

He didn't say it harshly, which surprised me. It was just a fact.

„Yes." I replied. Short, simple.

When I looked over, anticipating a response, I could discern he was biting his lip. He looked worried.

„Just... be careful, okay?"

His reply caught me off guard. I had anticipated something entirely different; anger maybe, but not this.

„What do you mean?"

„I mean that you should me careful." He sighed. „She's very... confused these days. I don't need you to confuse her further."

Slightly perplex, I responded: „I don't know what you're talking about."

„Of course you don't."

I was just about to say what the hell is that supposed to mean when I realized how tired her looked. It then became clear to me that Ian wasn't looking for a fight- he just worried about something. But what? What was this sudden dislike Wanda felt for me? Why did Ian see me as a threat? Did he seriously think I would hurt her ever again? I hadn't even remotely thought about killing her since I had Mel back, so why did they have this impression of me?

„I'm just trying to be nice," I said as calmly as I could.

„I know, I know." He answered quietly. His hands grasped the binoculars and he quickly peered through them to make sure everything was safe. Then, he put them on the grund next to him and sat down, crossing his legs. Slowly, I settled down next to him.

„Just... try and stay away from her for a while, ok, Jared? Could you do that please?"

„I'm not hurting her, O'Shea!"

„No," he agreed, „not exactly."


	3. Oh, Sweet Nostalgia

I tried to stay away from Wanda then.

I didn't know why I even bothered,- I still didn't understand why Ian felt it was necessary- but I just did it anyway. She was obviously pissed about something I didn't feel like was valid, so I decided not to waste my energy on something I felt so indifferent about.

It was then when I realized that I barely saw her anyways; whenever we encountered each other she would dodge away, and when I greeted her she smiled fleetingly and turned away. She was already ignoring me. For some reason that bothered me. And I wondered since when she had been doing it, and whether she had been avoiding me since she had obtained her own body- and maybe I just hadn't noticed because I had been focusing on Mel and our relationship so much. Maybe that's why she had reacted so strangely when I had started to talk to her again,- when I brought her to her room- because now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember the last time we had really talked before that incident. Maybe it had just caught her off-guard.

But why did she avoid me in the first place? What had I done? Was she mad that we took her out of Mel's body? That couldn't be the reason though. She had her own life now, and seemed very happy living it. She was the one who inaugurated us with all of this new technology that had helped us cut souls out of humans successfully for months now.

No, handing her a new body and therefore an own life just couldn't be the reason.

It had to be something against me personally, but what?

But even if I would have wanted to talk to her, it wouldn't have been possible. She was barely alone- usually Ian was right at her side, and if he wasn't, he was close enough to keep an eye on her. I saw him glance over to her protectively several times whenever she was talking to someone. Just when I watched him doing that, his eyes met mine and he looked away.

"There you are," I heard the familiar voice say behind me. Mel smiled and reached over to kiss me. When she pulled away, she looked deep into my eyes that were still focusing onto Ian's back.

"What's wrong, Howell?" She asked me semi-seriously. Her glance followed mine and then it flickered back to me.

"Nothing," I grumped. When I realized how childish that sounded, I added: "Ian's being a dick."

Wanda bit on her lips to compress a smile, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards nonetheless. "My poor baby," she said, and I could help but hear the mockery in her voice. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and kissed me on the cheek. I don't know why she thought my annoyed expression was so amusing, but it made her smile. "What's so funny?" I asked, bemused.

"You look like a little boy when you're angry."

"I don't." I couldn't help but smirk, though.

It was the way she pressed her lips together to try and hide the fact that she was amused- the way her lips curved into a silent promise without her even noticing it. Did she perceive it the way I did? Did she feel the things I felt when she touched me? Could she sense her own face light up whenever I smiled? It was like her smile was infectious; and I had no idea if only I was susceptible to this.

It was like our conjoint energy was flammable, as if there were silent flames rising around us whenever we smiled at each other in that unparalleled way-

"Seriously though," she said as she pulled away once more to look directly into my eyes. "What's going on?"

I shrugged. "Ian wants me to stay away from Wanda." I said it as casually as I could, but it still triggered a reaction in Mel's face. Her brows rose and her nostrils flared just a tiny bit; I would have missed it if I hadn't watched her so closely. And it was just for a split second before her smile flickered back, this time a bit more contrived. It didn't quite reach her eyes. Whatever it was that I didn't understand, she did.

"It's not easy for him," she just answered. She didn't seem angry or hurt. She was so... understanding.

When I looked at her blankly, she sighed.

"Jeeze, Jared. Come on. Wanda really loved you when she was in this body. He knows that, and so do you. And even thought it may be over and she has her own body and feelings now, it's understandable that he's a little cautious when it comes to you two-"

"Is that what it is?" I gasped.

"Yes, what did you-?"

"-I just thought she hated me." I admitted, a wave of relief flowing through my muscles and relaxing them. Mel laughed once- a loud, abrupt laugh. "Wanda could never hate you, Jared."

This made us both grow quiet for a moment. It was not necessarily an awkward silence, but a thoughtful one. We were both thinking about the past year. The fact that our relationship to one another,- mine, Mel's, Wanda's and Ian's- was probably a lot more afflicted with feelings and nostalgic memories that I had been aware of in the past few months made me feel uneasy. Had I really been this oblivious? I had thought that once everyone would have their own life back, and thus their own feelings, everything would go back to normal. And now on retrospect, that sounded too naïve, too simple. I realized that now.

"But I love you," I said silently. "Not her."

"And I know that," she replied softly. "And Wanda loves Ian. But we can't pretend that nothing ever happened." She shrugged and looked over to the couple who were laughing at something Jeb was saying."Just because it's over doesn't mean it's forgotten. Or that it never happened. It's exactly as real as it was a few months ago."

I saw Wanda talking to Jeb excitedly, watched how she thrust her arms into the air to gesticulate whatever it was she was trying to explain, and remembered our kiss. It was far away, and the memory was faint- an eclectic cluster of emotions and movements. Images of Mel's body flashed up, her lips, but the person that was kissing me behind them was someone else, the person that was gripping onto me with Mel's fingers was someone else. Someone that loves me in a different way, but desired me just as much, someone that knew me in a way only Mel could know me-

Mel was right. It would never go away. But at least it was over.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

"Because I don't want to spend my time looking back." I said, and this time she smiled her Mel-smile that was exclusively just for me, and it radiated so much happiness and love that I could barely contain myself of kissing her here and now. "I want to look forward. And I can only do that with you by my side."

The kiss we shared after that felt dream-like. And as our lips and tongues touched, I couldn't help but get drawn back into the memories.


End file.
